I believe this thread, which makes some really good points, was started in response to all the fanboys who were whining about a deleted scene in Captain Marvel. In the scene Carol Danvers twists the wrist of the dude who hit on her and asked her to smile. Anyway, this post covers a lot about how some men become deeply disturbed by female on male violence in movies and television, while women are expected to just grin and bear it…
Source: bau-liya / jujubiest
(via: Geek Girls)
Here are some of the comments people posted in response to this post:
“I loved Teeth specifically because it involved female empowerment.”
“Jennifer’s Body definitely felt like it deserved better accolades than it got.”
“I love movies and stories with strong female protagonist. kicking ass and taking names. I feel sorry for the “boys” who can’t stand the thought of a female protagonist.”
“Never to mind or mention that most men are terrified of Teeth because sexual education is so ridiculous in our country that vaginas are mysterious to them.” (Our People Who Failed Miserably at the Female Anatomy post can help confirm this comment, lol.)
And we’ll leave you with this great excerpt from Vice’s ‘Teeth’ Is the Feminist Horror Classic That Men Tried to Sabotage article is super relevant; “Her vagina dentata only snaps shut when she’s being violated or raped; she is otherwise capable of consensual, non-castrating sex. Unsurprisingly, this metaphor for consent was somewhat lost on the (mostly) male critics reviewing the film.”
I think this is anecdotal and I disagree.
Disclaimer: I have not seen the horror films mentioned here. This post is entirely about Captain Marvel.
That being said, I have seen Captain Marvel, and I know that the vitriol for the bad writing/bad acting is well-deserved. I also know that it got a hundred times more hate that Black Widow and the Wonder Woman movies, despite being fellow superheroines with male bad guys that they defeat. Black Widow is even in the same fictional universe (MCU) as Captain Marvel. Wonder Woman was a box-office smash, and 1984 was also a hit. Black Widow was eagerly anticipated for years, and while it got mixed reviews, most of the negativity revolved around her cast mates, not her. Heck, the Arrowverse TV series Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow were both female-led and lasted for more than five seasons each, indicating a high viewing audience. Even the Ms. Marvel and WandaVision series were generally liked (though they hold the stigma of MCU Phase 4’s downhill writing, as do their male counterparts). Captain Marvel was the outlier among the modern on-screen female superheroes for how much people disliked it.
So instead of assuming that sexism is the reason Captain Marvel is so hated, try asking first why it was hated more than the similarly-cast movies/TV series coming out at the same time. The answer is that they portrayed Carol Danvers – a beloved comic character known for kicking ass and taking names as a drunk with a bad temper and foul-mouthed quips – as an emotionless robot with no identity, and they tried to write a movie about it without ever fully resolving the problem or getting her to a more recognized version of her character like all the other on-screen superhero introduction movies did. She didn’t even fight the guy at the end; she gave up and let someone else take him down in order to claim a “moral” victory instead of an actual one like everyone else in superhero movies do. The writers were trying something there, and it didn’t appeal to the usual audience for the genre. It wasn’t sexism; the movie was just bad to those who like MCU movies (in much the same way as Thor: Dark World, which did the same, and Age of Ultron, which tried to pack too much new exposition into a sequel movie).
idk i liked captain marvel but im just a high school nerd so
why did i like it? because she can fry anyone who bugs her with her heat laser hands. because shes sassy af. cause shes a motorcycle girl (like me). because goose/flerken (need i say more?) and most of all, because it shows what gaslighting and manipulation can look like, what it does to you, and it doesn’t treat it as normal or beneficial. she isn’t strong because she was manipulated, or because she was handicapped to fit in a world not made for her (ND subtext, yay!) but DESPITE all this. despite her trauma, despite losing her memory, despite being gaslit and forced to hunt and kill innocents
she gets back up every time.
she chooses to do the right thing.
she stands up for herself
she stands up for those who cant stand up for themselves
she takes all the lies she was fed and turns it into strength, but also into empathy. she can kick yo ass, but she can also help you work through your feelings and trauma, and she can support you.
and this strength from trauma transformation? isnt “what doesnt kill you makes you stronger.” her strength isnt credited to who or what caused her to suffer. she is given credit, just as she should be. she is portrayed as self-made, built from her own strength on her own morals and terms from the ground up. no one else ‘made’ her Captain Marvel.
and that’s why i like her. its personal. she is a beacon of hope for me, showing me that trauma and hurt don’t make who you are, and that you can kick ass even though you’ve suffered, even though the world you’re in is not made for you. she told me i am not too much, and that the lies i was told are not who i am, that i decide who i am.
that’s why i like captain marvel.
if you don’t like captain marvel that’s okay, if you dont like the mcu that’s okay. i love the mcu not for the sass or the mythology or even the cgi, but for the way they handle difficult topics like grief, trauma, manipulation, racism, and so many more. the way they show characters who are flawed and struggling, characters like me, who battle anxiety, depression, PTSD, and so much more, as strong. the way they show the fact that they have flaws doesn’t make them weak but that it makes them human. the mcu characters aren’t shown as perfect, invincible heroes either. iron man is powerful and sassy and appears to have the best life ever. but he’s also scared, and lonely. he battles anxiety attacks and PTSD. hawkeye doesn’t have superpowers like almost all the other avengers do, and he’s deaf/hoh. but this doesn’t make him weak, actually i’d say he’s one of the strongest superheroes out there, because his strength comes from years of training. (i might be wrong, im not a marvel expert) the list goes on and on and on. the mcu has helped me in so many ways, and it’s one of the few fandoms i’ve found that covers these kinds of things and accurately represents them.